The Romantics, well-loved by karaoke masters everywhere for creating the classic song “That’s What I Like About You,” are suing Activision over the version of their hit in Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s. Apparently the cover in the game, marked “as made famous by the Romantics,” is so good that they’re afraid fans won’t be able to tell it from the original. Slightly paranoid. In any case, they’re suing the makers of the game, saying they didn’t have permission to make a “sound-alike” version of the song. Well, guys, it seems that copyright law says that you only need permission if you cover a song and it sounds too different. Precedent doesn’t seem to be on either side, so we’ll just have to see how this turns out. You can bet it will translate into sales for Guitar Hero, though – “So good, it’s against the LAW!”

Romantics Sue Over Guitar Hero [madisonian.net, more at joegratz.net]